Here is my summary of what I understood of Alain Touwaide's talk at Villa Mondragone. The talk was delivered in perfect Italian, yet I may have misunderstood something: take everything with a grain of salt. After the conference, I read the long New Yorker article linked below and I found it helpful.
** Introduction **
A biography of Wilfrid Voynich, based on his photographic portraits. His career from turban-wearing adventurer to elegant American citizen, from revolutionary to "personified establishment".
A description of the various parts of the manuscript: herbal, astrological, balneological, compound drugs, an index (Q20). This structure is markedly similar to that of a "iatrosophion" the Greek manual of medicine that was used in families and transmitted from grandmother to grandchild.
History of the manuscript: the possibility that Marci's letter to Kircher is about some other manuscript. Mention of various publications about the VMS: Olt, Gibbs, Cheshire. Janick and Tucker's American theory. The recent Italian edition by Bompiani, with two essays by Skinner and Prinke-Zandbergen.
Mention of Rich Santa Coloma's "1910 Voynich Theory" - the ms was created by Voynich using materials he acquired together with the Franceschini bookshop in Florence.
** The Herbal **
Method: systematic comparison of plants both within the VMS herbal and with other manuscripts.
There are motifs that recur inside the VMS, e.g.:
- "cat's tail" representations ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. ) with parts of the plant hanging down
- patterns of alternating colours ( You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. , You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. )
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- rosette-like leaves (repeated twice)
- poppy-like globular structures at the top
All these motifs recur in several illustrations in the VMS and can also be found in other manuscripts, in particular Tractatus De Herbis You are not allowed to view links.
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The poppy-like capsules are combined with a sun-like flower in VMS You are not allowed to view links.
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* You are not allowed to view links.
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The impressive "oak and ivy" image appears almost identically in the VMS and in the BL herbal (VMS You are not allowed to view links.
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Roots are particularly striking. A recurring motif looks like grafting ( You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view. ...). Grafting seems suggestive of combining different elements: the same thing that happens with how visual elements are mixed in plant illustrations. New images and new plants are created by mixing in new ways the same visual elements that can also be found in other herbals.
There is a contradiction between the accuracy with which the text was written and the sloppiness of painting. The poor quality of colour application excludes that the manuscript really is a "iatrosophion" - a manual that was intended for actual use would feature more accurate painting.
A medical manuscript that could be partly comparable with the Voynich herbal is You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view.. The library dates it to the XV Century, but it could be much later, XVII or XVIII Century.
** Edmond Locard and the psychology of forgery **
Locard is the father of modern criminology; he wrote about forgeries and the psychology of forgers. In particular, "Traité de criminalistique" Vol 4, and "Les Faux en Ecriture".
Items that can be compared with the VMS:
- The Phaistos Disc
- Stone heads by Modigliani found in the Arno
- The Artemidorus Papyrus
- The Nuntius Sidereus fake (discussed in an article by Nicholas Schmidle, You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.)
We return to Rich Santa Coloma's theory. The Nuntius Sidereus case illustrates how scientific analysis can fail, also in recent times. It also provides insight into the psychology of forgery.
As the case of the Nuntius shows, gaining money is not the only reason for forgery. The second motivation is a game, a challenge, between the forger and art critics / experts.
Locard's "exchange principle" suggests that criminals always leave traces behind them. For the VMS herbal, "grafting" could be the key: it points out that the plants were created by assembling elements derived from several different plants. Other details in the illustrations (e.g. the two faces in You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view.) can be seen as more or less deliberate hints to the reader / expert. This hide-and-seek game creates something like a complicity between the forger and the expert.
Other anomalies can be seen as the forger overdoing his job, resulting in an object that is "truer than truth". The worm holes that appear in f1 are absent in f2, but worms do not stop at one page. The forger decided he needed to also add worm holes to his repertoire of signs of authenticity. In his game, by stopping at the first page, he also provided a hint to forgery.
Assuming that the author of the MS is a forger, he clearly was an expert of the field, with a deep knowledge of manuscripts and medieval scientific literature. The way in which he reproduced a "iatrosophion" structure, including an index and compound drugs, is sophisticated: the author was likely familiar with the works of Galen.
Following the parallel with Sloane 4016: Voynich used to frequent the British Library. He might have taken sketches of the manuscript there and later reworked the illustrations to create the VMS.